Push for More Productive Meetings

Life intensifies in the summer as we try to juggle work and home life during the short, sweet vacation season. Yet, it’s nearly impossible to cancel every meeting and postpone every project until the fall. One high leverage opportunity—get better at conducting meetings and work sessions. You’ll feel better about scheduling the time and the team will be more energetic, enthusiastic and productive. Here are some techniques I’ve found to be helpful.

1) Always, always have an agenda with clear objectives for the meeting. Send it out ahead of time; help the team prepare to use the time well by supplying any documents or pre-reading that you can.

2) Identify a good location that provides quiet space, no distractions, reasonably comfortable seating (preferably with a table) and a flip chart/ white board for capturing ideas. An excellent (and greener option) is to use a laptop and projector to capture brainstorming ideas electronically and project them up on the wall for the team to reference.

3) Set ground rules and post them. It will be easier to pull folks back on to the agenda if the team has agreed to “stay on the subject.” If you have “chatters” who dominate the discussion, a ground rule about sharing speaking time, assists the chair in cutting them off.

4) Start and end on time; don’t reward latecomers. Be respectful of those in attendance and get them out the door as promised.

5) Keep a meeting record of decisions, assignments and next steps. Distribute it in a timely manner. Again, a laptop can help efficiently capture meeting ideas in one smooth key stroke, so to speak.

6) If the agenda just isn't working, stop and revise it. Don’t waste time on discussion items that are not helpful. Learn to read the group and improvise as needed.

7) Learn and use online meeting tools. Doodle.com and meetingwizard.com are great free tools for scheduling meetings. Meeting wizard also has tools for creating agendas and minutes.

8) Use online meeting tools to work on documents together online. Google Docs and pbworks.com provide real time access to documents and project work. The team can update and revise documents together. You can post the project workplan, meeting schedule and other team information.

Budgets are tight, time is compressed, and we are all protective of our schedules. Gain the reputation for scheduling and conducting valuable meetings. You’ll have better attendance and more enthusiastic participants.

Any tips to share for more productive meetings?

Strong Governance Relies on Board Chair/ E.D. Partnership

As the NorthSky team considers strategies for strengthening nonprofit governance, a key success factor has emerged in our thinking: the relationship between the board chair and executive director. During a professional development session this week, the speaker cited Peter Drucker (ahhh... remember him?) and his six characteristics of exceptional nonprofits. Near the top of his list is a strong board chair/executive director relationship. He specifically describes a positive working relationship with trust, adaptability, and flexibility. We’ve certainly seen the wisdom of this play out in our own northern Michigan nonprofits.

Developing an excellent board is an ongoing process. While many organizations are looking for a quick fix (maybe out of immediate need), their efforts may be doomed until they realize the necessity to build and nurture the relationships between the board and E.D./senior staff. As with the complexities of any relationship, it is an investment of time for those involved. That time investment, though most likely competing with other priorities, is essential. I remember seeing a statistic that many executive directors spend 35% of their time working with their board. To me that is a numerical representation of the importance of the relationship. It is fairly representative of the amount of time I've spent as an executive director in past roles. I figured I was at about 30-35%.

While there are competing challenges and priorities, these challenges reinforce the need to have a high-quality relationship between the board and E.D./senior staff. Nonprofits need a board that knows its work, the needs of the organization, has a manageable job and tools to facilitate their work. They should also enjoy the relationship so that their time spent with the organization is a priority both because of their passion for the mission but also because it is enjoyable. It isn't to say that the board doesn't do hard work but it is how they feel about doing the work-its importance, pride, sense of accomplishment, sharing, laughing together, etc.; it's a complex relationship.

Some of the tools that can be helpful include board development plans, board self-assessments, orientations, board manuals, board commitment letters, empowering board leadership and board agendas and continuous reinforcement of the work of the board. None of these individually, or collectively, are the answer but they can be useful in helping the board systematically consider what it's work is, how well it is doing it, what professional development it desires, etc. I've also been thinking about a peer cohort group of board presidents. . . .

Let me know your thoughts.

Debbie McKeon
NorthSky Executive Director